A file system is used to control how data is stored on and retrieved from a storage medium. Without a file system, information placed in the storage medium would be one large body of data with no way to tell where one content file stops and the next begins. A file system is responsible for organizing files and directories, and keeping track of which areas of the storage medium belong to which content file and which are not being used.
A file system stores all the file metadata associated with a content file, including the file name, the length of the contents of the content file, and the location of the content file, separate from the contents of the file. A write-lock may be required to modify the content file and its associated metadata. However, in some instances, only a single write-lock may be obtained. As a result, it may take a lot of time to write and/or modify the metadata and contents associated with a large content file (e.g., 100 TB).